Udmurt national holiday of gerberas. How is the national Udmurt holiday Gerber? Ritual porridge - what it was cooked from and what it symbolized

Gerber… hmm… what is a Gerber? Come on, let's roll this word in the language - ger-ber! How pebbles rattle. And either a herbarium, or a gerbera with herbalife, or even a terrible Kerberos come to mind, and to whom the human rights activist Alla Gerber, which is no better than Kerberos). But don't be alarmed, this is just the name of one of the holidays, very popular in the Udmurt region. And it’s good that we didn’t have to pronounce other words of the Udmurt language, because without skill, many of them are very difficult to pronounce. Well, to the point...

Many centuries ago, when the survival of human communities directly depended on how zealously they sow, plow or cast nets, human holidays were increasingly tied to the agricultural calendar. The people of the Udmurts, or Votyaks, who comfortably lived in the Kama and Cis-Urals, were no exception. Like many other neighboring ethnic groups, the Udmurts were mainly engaged in arable farming and attached great importance to the plowing procedure - so much so that they dedicated one of their holidays to it - Gerber.

The name Gerber comes from the Votyak words “hery” - a plow, and “bere” - after, behind, which already makes it clear in what period of time this festival was held. In the old days, Gerber was celebrated in the spring, immediately after the end of plowing and sowing, he did not have a strict date. There was a belief among local residents that the land after cultivation is pregnant, and it is impossible to injure it ahead of time with either a hoe or a plow. These days, before the hayfields, the farmer had a very short rest, which was dedicated to celebrations and sacred events.

In the old days, in different regions of Udmurtia, the holiday was called differently. He was also called Gyron Bydton, and Kuarsur, and Guzh Yuon, and even, God forgive me, Pinal Mudor. But in all places, the action was approximately the same - the community members, under the rites of the local pagan clergyman, walked around the fields in a crowd and performed kurisko - they prayed to the creator god Inmar and his deputy for fertility Kylchyn for a rich harvest. After that, they made a sacrifice - they slaughtered a well-fed calf on the field and made a ritual multi-cereal kulesh from different types of grains with its meat.

After the sacred snack, the people began to dance, sing, choose brides and arrange various entertainments. The girls dressed up, and the guys arranged competitions, wanting to find their location. The fact that each housewife of the yard was obliged to bring a flask of local homemade vodka-kumyshka to the festivities contributed a lot to the fun. This point in the program of the festival was given great importance. It is even known that when Mother Catherine the Great introduced a state monopoly on vodka and forbade private distillation, an exception was made for the Votyaks in their tearful petition for the sake of the holiday.

Years passed, and gradually the celebration of Gerber moved to a more convenient time for mass festivities - the end of the summer solstice. Ethnographers still do not have a common opinion on how and when the spring holiday became summer, there is a version that there were originally two Gerbers - an early large and a late small one. It is only known that at the end of the 19th century it was clearly associated with St. Peter's Day, Orthodox priests appeared at the festival, and Christ and the saints were already mentioned in the texts of the curiscons. Probably, there was a characteristic for pagan traditions binding them to Christian holidays.

After the revolution, the tradition of celebrating Gerber, of course, was interrupted - it did not fit into the new ideology in any way. And only in 1992 the celebration resumed. True, no religious motives are observed in solemn events. They do not have a fixed date. On one of the June weekends, competitions for the best national costume and exhibitions of various small folk arts are held in the meadow in the ethnographic museum-reserve Ludorvay. Products from birch bark are especially abundantly presented - the Udmurts are great masters of them. Ritual porridge is still cooked on fires in huge cauldrons. During the solemn meeting-rally, the best grain growers are awarded.

Personally, the President of Udmurtia visits the festival and goes around all the shops of craftsmen, never leaving without a purchase. On this day, the local population has a rare opportunity to communicate directly with their beloved leader and other retinue officials of various ranks. Several thousand people gather for the holiday, guests come from different regions of Russia and from abroad. Everyone willingly tastes local cuisine, attends master classes in making Udmurt national whistles and straw weaving, learns national dances and artistic clay modeling. Walkers are delighted with folklore song and dance ensembles. An old folk custom continues to live a new life ...

Gerber: about the traditional summer holiday of the Udmurts A. V. Korobeinikov, D. M. Sakharnykh The Gerber holiday, Udmurt in origin and color, has long been a nationwide character in Udmurtia and, perhaps, surpasses in popularity even such a traditionally interethnic holiday as Sabantuy. Gerberas are celebrated in summer. There is no binding to a specific calendar date. Often, residents of the Udmurt Republic are guided by the pre-announced time of the republican folklore festival "Gerber" (over the past ten years, the date of this event has fallen every time between June 10 and 26). The festival is held every year in different places in Udmurtia with the participation and effective assistance of the republican leadership, whose work schedule also has to be taken into account by the organizers of this “main” gerbera, whose program is a model to follow when organizing similar kinds of holidays locally. I. The modern summer holiday of gerberas symbolizes the end of spring field work. It is this formulation that is repeated almost unanimously by the republican mass media every year. It is especially amusing to read such reports in regional newspapers, when a village journalist describes, for example, a ritual of xuan beads performed during a holiday, during which, under the June sun, ears of corn from one field are plucked and transferred to the next one. Often in the same issue of the newspaper you can see reports and photographs from haymaking. This circumstance cannot be explained by the unprofessionalism of journalists: they just follow the local ethnographers. Thus, on the pages of the popular textbook Ethnography of the Udmurts, Vladimir Vladykin and Lyudmila Khristolubova write: “An important stage of peasant labor associated with the spring cultivation of the land ended with a holiday called in different places gerberas, guzh yuon, kuarsur.” Let us explain that both guzhem yuon (translated from Udmurt as “summer holiday”, “summer feast”) and kuarsur (“beer of leaves” – a holiday associated with the laying of birch leaves on a kuala basket) were celebrated, although in different localities. - Kalal traditions, but on the same St. Peter's day (June 29, old style). Both authors do not specify how the summer holiday, even in name, which falls on the current calendar almost in mid-July, began to complete the spring cultivation of the land. And this is not the only oddity in the descriptions of the holiday provided by modern ethnographers. The same Vladimir Vladykin, in collaboration with Tatyana Perevozchikova, writes that Gerber is “a summer holiday held on the last days of the summer solstice”, that “now Gerber is strictly timed to July 12”, and at the same time “it is believed that this is the last holiday of the earth, the last summer holiday: until this day, all spring land work in which a plow is used is completed. “It was also called kuarsur (“a holiday in honor of greenery”),” the named authors assure, “because at this time summer reaches its peak.” Tatyana Minniyakhmetova says about the same thing: “Gerber is a mass holiday held after the completion of all spring land work with the use of a plow before the start of the harvesting campaign. In the villages of the Uninsky district of the Kirov region… it was timed to coincide with July 21… Gerber is a rite of thanksgiving in honor of the end of planting and sowing work, sprouted bread… It can be concluded that the rite was carried out in order to ask the gods for the ripening of bread, a good harvest… ". Elena Popova, in her monograph dedicated to the Besermens, states: “The middle of summer was called the gerbera (literally: the time after plowing), which lasted about a week and coincided with the summer solstice, and in the late tradition was timed to coincide with the days Peter and Paul (July 12)". Be that as it may, but in our time all “spring land work with the use of a plow” (in other words, plowing) in Udmurtia ends in the first ten days of May. According to the data collected by Boris Gavrilov, Grigory Vereshchagin, Ioann Vasiliev, and already in our time based on the materials of the archives of Margarita Grishkina, in the 18th-19th centuries, sowing everywhere ended in the second decade of May, while sowing was preceded by repeated harrowing, and seeding in the soil also occurred harrowing, which took a considerable amount of time from the farmer, but even then plowing ended around the first ten days of May. In any case, the celebration “for the sake of the end of arable land” in July, that is, two months after the real end of plowing, and in the old days and now looks at least strange. The researchers' indication that the holiday was held “on the last days of the summer solstice” (which happens in the last ten days of June) is in no way connected with the dates of the holiday that they themselves give - July 12, N.S. (Petrov's Day) or July 21, N.S. For at least the 18th-20th centuries (and in fact even in a more distant time), the end of spring field work in May, see above, could not have been the period of the summer solstice. We sow spring crops in the first ten days of May, sow winter crops in mid-August, so the July gerbera cannot be a holiday of “thanksgiving in honor of the end of planting and sowing work”, because it is celebrated in a large interval between these works. Spring crops germinate in the third decade of May, winter crops - in the third decade of August, a week after sowing, therefore, gerberas in July cannot be celebrated in any way “in honor of the crops that have risen”. The gerbera dates given by ethnographers (July 12 or 21) are close to the area of ​​winter rye ripening on July 16-23 and the milky ripeness of spring wheat and oats on July 15-30. Of course, at this time “to ask the gods for a good harvest” is pointless - the winter harvest is already in full, the spring harvest is also visible in full, and cannot increase in any way. Gerber is observed in the phenological period of early summer, and one cannot agree with the statement that summer during this period “reaches its peak”. Even from a purely formal point of view, Gerber is by no means the last summer holiday: after it, already in the period of full summer, the willow tree is celebrated (Ilyin's Day, August 2). One gets the impression that modern researchers in their descriptions at least do not take into account the well-known data of the phenological calendar. II. As in many similar cases, to clarify the situation, one has to turn to the works of pre-revolutionary ethnographers, contemporaries of the tradition they describe. Nikolay Pervukhin, a researcher of rituals of the Glazov Udmurts, writes in the most detail about the gerbera (and his description, of course, is very different from the picture of the holiday that can be observed now). “Now is the holiday“ Dzek-gerber ”<‘большой гербер’>coincides with the Christian feast of St. Peter and Paul (June 29), but whether it coincided before, this cannot be said. In any case, this holiday gave the Votyaks a rest after arable land and spring sowing and before the beginning of the hay harvest ... in the evening, representatives of families go to vdzek-kvala<‘большую куа- лу’>with prepared supplies ... and in the usual way they eat porridge here, and with zek-pop<‘старшим жрецом’> a prayer is read for deliverance from hail, worms, fire and strong winds, as well as for sending strength, dexterity and health to the upcoming haymaking. On the morning of the 30th, the hostesses cook pancakes again ... for the prayer of this day, which is called "jag utchan" i.e. bride of rye, or “jag sektan” – honoring rye”. In addition to the ‘large gerber’, there was also a ‘small gerber’, Pochi gerber, which marked the end of haymaking and was timed to coincide with Ilyin’s day, i.e. gone even further into the summer. At the same time, rituals associated with rye (dzheg utchan, dzheg sektan) are not mentioned by chance: the date of the holiday, July 12, n.s., in accordance with phenological observations, is the eve of the ripening of winter rye in Udmurtia. The prayer read on this day lists natural factors that are hostile to the ripened grain crop: hail, worm, fire and wind. The rite of smorin, or honoring the rye, performed on the second day of the gerbera, by definition, has nothing to do with the past plowing. In addition, Pervukhin cites the following texts of prayers uttered during spring ceremonies: “... let each straw grow into 12 knees before the gerbera!”, “... in the gerberas, when we go out to work, work, while mowing and drying hay, while throwing haystacks, give us lightness and strength! For both the northern and southern traditions at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, observers (Pervukhin, Vasiliev) indicate the same time for celebrating gerberas - Peter's Day, when the time to complete plowing has long passed: arable land and sowing are done two months before. Nevertheless, gerberas were undoubtedly celebrated in the spring as well. The same John Vasiliev points out: “Peter’s day (also) of Hera Ber is a family holiday, for the sake of finishing the arable land.” Here, attention is drawn not only to the obvious contradiction between the date and timing of the holiday, as is the case with Pervukhin, but also its qualification as a family holiday, while Pervukhin draws this holiday as a communal one. As if the etymology of the word gerber, derived from the words gery ‘sokha’ (it is not difficult to explain the transformation of the word gery into the word ger) and ber ‘zad, ass; what is behind' indicates the spring character of the holiday: usually in the use of the word ger(s) 'sokha' they see metonymy and the designation of plowing, and the component ber is interpreted - not without significant grammatical exaggeration - as a synonym for the Udmurt postposition bere ' after'. In this case, the whole word must mean, apparently, ‘(holiday) after plowing’. How can such conflicting indications be reconciled? The information of Boris Gavrilov, who studied the local traditions of the Udmurts of the Kazan province, is of fundamental importance. Gavrilov, just like Pervukhin, mentions not one, but two gerberas, large and small, but at the same time he gives different dates and indicates a different timing, and most importantly, he considers the holidays themselves in the context of a series of sacred actions, performing prayed by the Udmurts during the year – prayers, during which porridge with beef is sacrificed. “Common prayers, originating from private prayers,” writes Gavrilov, “are performed by the whole village, which is why they differ from private ones, because there are the same priests, the same situation and purpose as with private prayers, with the exception of the place: common prayers are performed in fields, private - in kuals. These common kurbons are performed after the sowing of flax, at the end of May or at the beginning of June and at the end of haymaking, near large rivers, near which there are mostly meadows ... If the rivers are small, then there are no common sacrifices with them, and the votyaks of such villages are only private kurbons, and each family stabs in their kuala a young ram, promised at the beginning of haymaking, which is eaten right there, as a token of gratitude for the successful completion of haymaking, under the same conditions and ceremonies under which private tribal sacrifices are performed. After that, they feast, calling their feast pochi ger ber, in contrast to the real ger ber, which is celebrated shortly after the end of the sowing. The foregoing, apparently, allows us to remove the contradiction in the definition of a gerbera either as a communal or as a family holiday. Further, both researchers agree that important operations of the agricultural cycle were celebrated among the Udmurts with a special sacrifice. The time of the celebration of those that were timed to coincide with the end of sowing, the beginning or end of haymaking, could be called a gerber, while if one holiday was called a gerber proper or a large gerber, then the next after it could be called a small gerber. III. In later times, the gerbera, apparently, was confined mainly to the beginning of haymaking. Why did this particular technological operation stand out among others as a special holiday? Firstly, due to the special significance of haymaking in the life of a peasant. An analysis of acts of purchase and sale, pledge and lease of agricultural land in the 19th century shows that both the sale price and the estimated value and rental price of hayfields are ten times higher than those for arable land. This can be explained by the fact that the productivity of hay in value terms was greater than the productivity of arable land: using hay, it was possible to create much more significant surplus use value (calorie products for the family) and exchange value (goods for the market). For hay (or for livestock products obtained through this hay) it was possible to earn much more on the market than for grain obtained from the same area with less labor intensity of hay harvesting. The reason that the peasant, especially those living in the outback, could not narrowly specialize, abandoning agriculture in favor of fodder production, was primarily the underdevelopment of commodity-money relations and the extreme laboriousness of storing and moving hay and livestock products to the market. This summer holiday opened another phenological season - a full summer, that is, it was neither spring nor pre-autumn (the last summer). Our conclusion regarding the subjective and phenological content of this holiday is quite consistent with the testimony of Tatyana Minniyakhmetova that in the Uninsky district of the Kirov region in our time, gerberas are dated for July 21st. Unfortunately, we do not currently have access to sources on the agro-climatic situation in the Kirov region, but the Uninsky district is located at the latitude of the Debessky and Krasnogorsk regions of Udmurtia (in the northern climatic zone), and according to long-term observations, the date of maturation of winter rye for these districts - July 22-23. The real basis of the holiday here is no longer a rest from spring labors, but preparation for the harvesting campaign, including by performing ritual actions from the field of protective and industrial magic: the peasant felt the need for supreme intercession in preserving the fruits of his yearly labor - grain and grain. hay. Secondly, in addition to the declared sacred side, the prayer arranged during such a gerbera seemed to have a completely prosaic purpose. This holiday in the life of a peasant was followed by a period of intense, almost round-the-clock work. Literally in a few days from mid-July to early August, he had to cope with haymaking, harvesting and sowing winter crops. Delay with any of these technological operations turned into a shortage of crops and an impending hunger strike. Therefore, all able-bodied people went out to suffer, and worked until they dropped. It was for them what is denoted by the (today compromised) term "battle for the harvest." Both ethnographic sources and a simple acquaintance with peasant life tell us that everyday peasant food contains mainly plant components. All components of the daily diet, with the exception of milk, are low in calories, contain almost no proteins, and are poor in fats and carbohydrates. In addition, there is simply no one to cook food that requires long-term processing (by the way, in the summer you can’t cook hard porridge or meat in a home oven every day and you won’t bake bread every day, because it’s already hot in the hut; it is logical that during gerbera the family eats porridge with beef where it was cooked - in kuala, which is used as a summer kitchen). Russian peasants in the Urals stocked up food resources for the suffering in the form of high-calorie canned food, suitable for consumption with minimal preparation (the ancestors of one of the authors of these lines kept corned beef in the cellar, prepared for the suffering days back in winter - all of it was eaten to support the strength of the members families these days). In the conditions of communal life and sacrificial cult, however, the peasant does not have an urgent need to preserve meat in order to receive enhanced nutrition before suffering. After all, he can participate in public prayer, during which he will receive his portion of the meat of the sacrificial animal. Thus, eating ritual, primarily meat food, as well as oil, gave the Udmurt community member, especially the poor, the opportunity to introduce into the body proteins and fats that are so necessary at the right time, which would otherwise be obtained for him at that time. time is difficult or impossible. “The feast before the hayfield lasted 2-3 days.” IV. So, in different local traditions, the gerber was celebrated at different times, could be celebrated twice (as a ‘(large) gerber’ and as a ‘small gerber’ following it) and be associated with different technological agricultural operations; moreover, in other local traditions, holidays with different names could be timed to coincide with the same operations. The summer gerberas, as a rule, correlated with the day of Peter and Paul (June 29, old style), and its subjective side consisted in the performance of magical rites and actions in order to preserve the winter crop in the vine for the period of its ripening and harvesting. After the holiday, haymaking and harvesting began. The holiday fell exactly on the “working low water period” – the days of a natural pause in the technological cycle of the farmer (“before St. Peter’s day of the week, field work is interrupted for two”). To date, the understanding of the real foundations and functions of the Gerber holiday has been largely lost. It is hardly possible now to restore the understanding of gerberas as a holiday that opens haymaking, since the timing of gerberas has significantly shifted to spring: if in the 19th century, we recall, it was celebrated on July 12, N.S. (and in some places even July 21), now they celebrate it a month earlier (in the south of Udmurtia and in northern Tatarstan, they usually celebrate gyron bydton - an analogue of the spring gerbera, lit. or the second Sunday of the month). In this form, it rather symbolizes the end of spring as a phenological and calendar season. Even where gerberas (under the name gyron bydton) are celebrated in July (as it was, for example, on July 10, 2004 in the Mendeleevsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan), fantastic explanations of obviously late origin are given to justify the celebration. The reasons for all these transformations on the surface are the internationalization of the life of the villagers, fundamental changes in the technology of agricultural labor, the erosion of the religious component of the holiday, the disagreement of local traditions, which complicated the understanding of the essence of the gerbera. All this led to the actual merging together in the popular consciousness of several different holidays. When the national artist of Udmurtia Semyon Vinogradov called in 1990 for the establishment of an essentially new holiday, in which gerber (Peter's day), gershyd (Trinity) and gyron bydton would merge, such a merger in many places has already occurred in practice. a few years later it was institutionalized in the form of the already mentioned republican folklore festival "Gerber". It is curious that Tatar sabantui underwent exactly the same transformations: the date of the celebration shifted, as a result of which sabantuy, in fact, merged with the jien holiday and became international. The internationalization of the holiday especially saddens the nationalist-minded intelligentsia, both among the Tatars in relation to the Sabantuy, and, alas, among the Udmurts in relation to the gerbera. In fairness, it should be noted that almost all non-Udmurt gerbera participants, as well as a fair amount of Udmurts, perceive this holiday only as another occasion for fun, and have absolutely no idea of ​​the circumstances under which this holiday arose, and the meaning that he carried in the old days. But in the future, this can lead to the final degeneration of the holiday and its complete loss. Obviously, in addition to the absolutely necessary popularization of the historical aspects of the summer gerbera as a holiday that marked the preparation for haymaking and cereal harvesting, some rethinking of the ancient holiday is also necessary, taking into account its current state. Such work could well include not only ethnologists, but also local cultural workers, through whose efforts the gerbera is held annually, being an important tool in strengthening ethnic tolerance and promoting the Udmurt culture. Notes The "main" gerbera passes approximately as follows. In the morning on the appointed day, people who have gathered for the holiday participate in folk festivals: they go from house to house, eat, sing songs and have fun, after which they gradually gather in one place (usually in a large meadow), where a stage is already arranged and - Puppies boilers for cooking porridge with meat. Participants of the holiday are greeted by local and republican leaders, they also reward distinguished villagers, after which (around noon) porridge is prepared, and a symbolic prayer takes place. The porridge is then eaten by gerbera participants, for whom all kinds of concerts, competitions, sports competitions, and traveling trade are also arranged. Folk festivities can continue until late in the evening. Vladykin V.E., Khristolyubova L.S. Ethnography of the Udmurts. Izhevsk, 1991. P. 84 Vasiliev I. Review of pagan rituals, superstitions and beliefs of the Votyaks of the Kazan and Vyatka provinces. Kazan, 1906.S.37. Buch, Max. Die Wotjaken. Eine ethnologische Studie. Helsingfors, 1882. S. 128. Vladykin V. E., Perevozchikova T. G. Annual ritual cycle of the Udmurt community “buskel” (materials for the folk calendar) // Specificity of genres of Udmurt folklore. Izhevsk, 1990. S. 60-61. Minniyakhmetova T. G. Calendar rites of the Zakama Udmurts. Izhevsk, 2004. P. 64 Popova E.V. Calendar rites of the Besermens. Izhevsk, 2004. P.125. Gavrilov B. Works of folk literature, rituals and beliefs of the Votyaks of the Kazan and Vyatka provinces. Kazan, 1880, p. 157; Vereshchagin G.E. Communal land tenure among the Votyaks of the Sarapul district // Collected Works. T. 3, book. 1. Izhevsk, 1998, p. 91; Vasiliev I. Review of pagan rituals, superstitions and beliefs of the Votyaks of the Kazan and Vyatka provinces. Kazan. S. 86; Grishkina M.V. Peasantry of Udmurtia in the 18th century. Izhevsk, 1977. P. 49. Agro-climatic guide for the Udmurt ASSR. L., 1961. S. 76-78. There. Pervukhin N. G. Sketches of legends and life of foreigners of the Glazov district. Sketch II. Idol-sacrificial ritual of the ancient Votyaks in its footsteps in the stories of the old people and in modern rites. Vyatka, 1888. S. 68-70. Ibid, p. 24 Ibid., p. 69-70 Pervukhin NG Sketches of legends and life of foreigners in the Glazov district. Sketch III. Traces of pagan antiquity in samples of the works of oral folk poetry of the Votyaks (lyrical and didactic). Vyatka, b.g. S. 8.11. Vasiliev I. Review ... P. 86. Vladykin V. E. Religious and mythological picture of the world of the Udmurts. Izhevsk, 1994. P. 192. Gavrilov B. Works ... P.164. Holidays dedicated to technological operations were communal and family, as the technological operations themselves were communal and family. For example, in the conditions of a land community and a three-field field, a forced crop rotation operated - each communal field (spring, winter, fallow) was divided into strips. Users of all strips had to perform each of the operations before sowing at the same time, so that the vegetation of plants of the same species on all strips of a given field occurred synchronously. The starting signal for these operations was given through a community holiday. The holiday could also mark the end of the operation. Here, participation in the holiday was for each householder a kind of report on the work done on time and a demonstration of his loyalty to the community: after all, if the owner of the strip could not cultivate the soil and sow it, his neighbors in the field would have to do it, or the community in clubbing, guided by quite mercantile reasons - the unsown strip was overgrown with weeds, which littered the entire field, which reduced the yield, and required additional labor for weeding. Latyshev N.N. Udmurts on the eve of the reform of 1861. Izhevsk, 1939. P. 110-113. Agro-climatic reference book ... P. 76. Vasiliev I. Review ... P.22. Pervukhin N. G. Sketches of legends and life of foreigners of the Glazov district. Sketch V. Traces of pagan antiquity in the superstitious rites of everyday life of the Votyaks from the cradle to the grave. Vyatka, 1890. P.51. “...“Gyron Bydton” is held in the meadow at the most beautiful time - during the flowering period. According to the beliefs of the Udmurts, their God "Vos" on June 1 flies from the Kupala prayer temple to the meadows and returns back on Peter's Day (July 12). Therefore, during this period, they pray not in the temple, but in nature. And in order not to offend God inadvertently, not accidentally hurt, from June 1 to July 12 it is forbidden to pick flowers and meadow grasses” // Official server of the Republic of Tatarstan. http://www.tatar.ru/? DNSID=c7a9912c461f21bf12b2a191eb10768e&node_id=2818 Vinogradov S. Gerber – kalyk feast // Soviet Udmurtia. Izhevsk. 1990, June 22. C.4. Wed e.g. Vladykin V.E., Khristolyubova L.S. Ethnography of the Udmurts. Izhevsk, 1991. P. 87, Vladykin V. E. Religious and mythological picture of the world of the Udmurts. Izhevsk, 1994. P. 187. “…The Russians have “Karavon”, the Chuvash have “Uyav”, the Mordovians have “Baltai”, the Udmurts celebrate “Gyron-Bydton”, the Mari have “Semyk”. And what do the Tatars have? Sabantuy? Siraji asks. Sabantuy has long turned into an international holiday… It is important for me that the Tatars have a national holiday… It is important that this holiday be conducted in the Tatar language, so that the Russians would be guests in it. So that at least one day in the year passes without vodka and pork” // Musina A. In search of the lost? One Sabantuy will not be enough // Evening Kazan. Kazan, 2004. June 16. “Chairman of the organization “Udmurt Kenesh” Valentin Tubylov has his own opinion: ...Some say: Gerber is a public holiday. I disagree with those who say so. “Semyk” of the Mari – is that also a state event?.. Gerber is a holiday of the Udmurt people. Well, you can devote some other events to international friendship ”(translated from udm.) // E. Vinogradova. Ton cheber, Gerber! // Udmurt Dunne. Izhevsk, 2001. June 14. [*] Korobeinikov, Aleksey Vladimirovich (1961) – Udmurt State University, Department of History, Department of Archeology and History of Primitive Society, applicant. Sakharnykh, Denis Mikhailovich (1978) – Udmurt State University, Institute of Social Communications, Department of History and Political Science, applicant. First published in the online edition "Ethno Journal - Ethnonet.ru"

June 21st, 2015 , 04:10 pm

On Saturday, another massive national holiday in Udmurtia - Gerber. Gerber is translated from the Udmurt language - "after the plow". In other words, this is a holiday associated with the end of spring arable work in the fields. Today we will see how this beautiful national holiday is celebrated in his homeland in Udmurtia.

Gerber has been officially held in Udmurtia since 1992. Before the main republican holiday, small gerberas are still held at the level of villages and regional centers of Udmurtia. The main holiday falls at the end of June and gathers a huge number of people from all over Udmurtia and even Russia. Every year the main Gerber is organized in different places in Udmurtia. This year it is the Kezsky district. From Izhevsk to Kez about 170 km. and I left early in the morning to catch the beginning of the holiday.

Before starting the report, I want to make a small digression.
Although I have been living in Udmurtia since birth, I am not familiar with national traditions, because. my parents do not have Udmurt roots and came to Izhevsk under the Soviet distribution system after their studies. So please forgive me for some inaccuracies.

1. The first meeting with the holiday was already waiting for me at the entrance to the village of Kez, a few kilometers before the main site of the holiday. At the entrance, all guests are met by the hosts of the holiday in national clothes, which sets the appropriate mood:

3. Gerber is celebrated this year in an open field near the village of Yuski, a few kilometers from the village of Kez. A small area runs along a dirt road. It was very nice to see a machine that poured water on the primer. Thereby preventing the rise of dust:

4. Parking for guest cars is also organized in an open field:

5. A huge number of guests came to the holiday:

6. Gerber is somewhat reminiscent of the Tatar Sabantuy, or vice versa. But there is definitely something in common. Open field with a slight slope for a better view. The main stage is set at the bottom of the slope:

7. I arrived just in time for the opening of the holiday:

9. The beginning of the holiday resembles a demonstration or the opening of the Olympic Games. First, small groups of representatives of the regions of Udmurtia pass by the audience:

10. At first glance, this may seem pretentious, but we must not forget that it is the village and the village that feed the whole of Udmurtia:

11. National costumes create a special color. As far as I know, they have their own characteristics in each region:

13. Everyone is met and accompanied by applause:

14. The Izhevsk group completes the representatives of Udmurtia:

15. I can not help but mention this lady. Pay attention to manicure, jewelry and glasses. I think the wig looks so good. We'll see her later:

16. Udmurtia is followed by representatives of other regions where Udmurts also live. The fact is that the total population of Udmurts in the Russian Federation is 552 thousand people, 410 of them live in the territory of Udmurtia, the rest in other regions. The most numerous are presented on Gerbera:

18. Well, actually closes the column - Moscow:

19. In the meantime, the performance of various groups begins on the stage:

20. The sound is not bad, but rolling. With the annual holding of such large-scale holidays in Udmurtia, it would be time to buy your own device, and not "feed" the distributors. This is the inner voice of a person who is directly involved in professional sound equipment in Izhevsk speaking in me:

21. Well, we continue:

22. Artists change on stage:

23. Everything is fun and provocative. Guests love:

24. Near the stage there is a prize for the winner in the competition for the best worker in the village. By the way, I saw the same tractor two weeks ago at the pavilion of the Republic of Belarus on:

Here he is:

25. Let's see how the guests are entertained besides the stage. Along the perimeter of the entire field, you can find a lot of entertainment for both adults and children:

26. For example, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia offers to take part in the competition:

27. Two participants must put on combat equipment for a while and hit the target with a jet from a fire hose:

28. Kids also have something to do next to the fire truck:

29. In general, a lot has been done for children on Gerber. Various attractions, games:

30. Swing:

31. Throughout the territory of Gerber there are such signs. The truth is in the Udmurt language, because the holiday is Udmurt. In general, it seems to me that I was the only guest at this holiday who did not speak the Udmurt language, and this did not bother me at all:

32. A lot of entertainment was also provided for adults:

34. National Udmurt fun - who will throw a huge log further. Let me tell you, it's impressive. They throw an average of 4-5 meters:

35. Learning to play on a special whistle-pipe:

36. Weaving masters:

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